The Art of Gratitude (year 3 week 11)
The heroes came into the studio ready for a quick, fun and challenging three week session.
The studio looked a little different…
They were welcomed with their choice of hot cocoa or sparkling cider and they were excited to chat with their fellow heroes about their Thanksgiving break.
Their morning was filled with excitement as the heroes worked their way through the new layout of the studio. One of the first things that the heroes noticed was studio maintenance.
The guides took the heroes advice and a few game-making tricks they had up their sleeves and created a new studio maintenance system. The rules of the game are as follows:
There is an area 1 and an area 2 leader. Their main job is to make sure their heroes are finishing their jobs. The area that does the best throughout the week receives a hero buck and opportunity to plan the holiday party. The heroes who fail to do their job are in jeopardy of losing a hero buck. Last session, the heroes signed the studio contract and it is hanging up proudly. On the contract it states, “treat the studio like a sacred place.” The heroes know that not doing their studio maintenance is breaking their contract promise. The joy of competition and the chance of an extra hero buck has pushed them to really work hard to accomplish their studio maintenance goals.
Monday’s excitement lasted until the very end of the day. The heroes discovered what their quest would be and they couldn’t wait to get started.
Pitch-a-Pet was in full swing. The heroes got to work on what pet they feel would be best for the studio. At exhibition, the heroes will get the opportunity to pitch their pet to family and friends in hopes of winning! Over this session, heroes will be crafting their communication, writing and persuasive skills through speech writing and practice.
Can’t Catch Me
As the heroes rolled into Tuesday they were determined to keep up their studio maintenance game and scrubbed the halls, floors and windows till the bitter end. They started to understand what their individual jobs entailed and were practicing intentional maintenance throughout the day.
By the time the afternoon rolled around they were itching to know what Writer’s Workshop would be.
This session the heroes have the opportunity to hone their craft at creative writing. They decided to pair up to write their own holiday stories. This session the heroes will be discovering different ways to create a compelling and adventurous story. They will be diving into the world of creating a lead character and figuring out how to make that character likable and adventurous.
15 Days of Gratitude
Even though this is a short three week session, the heroes are still putting in the time, energy and effort to run a world class studio.
They have been offered up a challenge of gratitude. Every day, the heroes take a gratitude slip, read it out loud and discuss the challenge. There is everything from,
“Where would you want to volunteer?”
to
“How can you express gratitude to your family?”
Many of the gratitude challenges also incorporate a handwritten challenge. This session the heroes are very focused on improving their handwriting. Adding in a few extra challenges gives the heroes on opportunity to practice and repeat.
The heroes added in a little extra flair when they created a, Holiday Inspector challenge. The challenge was based on asking their fellow heroes specific questions and writing them down. Think interviewer and interviewee. One of the questions was, “Give me an argument as to why hot cocoa is better than eggnog.”
Their freedom of expression through fun and handwriting molded into many exciting challenges during collaboration in the studio.
Exhibition Planning
On Thursday, the guide proposed a challenge to the heroes.
“Last session I noticed high stress during the planning segment of exhibition. I am proposing a new way to address the stress of exhibition planning. Obviously the choice is yours. If you feel this new idea won’t be helpful you can stick to how it has previously been done”
The heroes sat interested but unsure. In the past, the heroes had been planning exhibition in the last week of the session. The guide noticed that there was high stress which caused some segments of exhibition to not be completed.
An hour long discussion ensued. The heroes discussed, had a short debate and then finally took a vote. It was then decided that the beginning of every session, moving forward, the heroes who had been in flying or soaring, for three weeks consecutively would be on the exhibition planning committee.
Every Friday of the session, the Exhibition Planning Committee will meet during collaboration to work together on their specific jobs such as:
- Creating a schedule.
- Developing a voting system.
- Designing the layout.
Since planning is another task added to what the heroes are already doing, they have been given leadership tokens in return. The heroes who are working on the planning have showed exceptional leadership, accountability and are excelling in holding up the Freedom Levels.
Friday Fun
On Thursday, the heroes had a blast with their “Holiday Inspector” unit. The guide told them that whoever had the best interview would get a hero buck. However, the guide simply could not decide.
Instead, the heroes got surprised with a fun activity through creative expression. The guide brought in salt dough and let them decide on what type of ornament they would like to create. Some decided it would be fun to add a prop to their stories, others made gifts for their families and some decided to make decorations for their desks.
Pablo Picasso was once quotes as saying, “Everything you can imagine is real.”
During this session there is a huge emphasis on creativity. The heroes find so much joy in learning more about their talents. Whether it be writing, art or design. The heroes are learning to be masters of their own personal crafts.
Wrap-Up
The first week of the session is always exciting. The heroes get to learn about the new leadership roles, finding out what Quest and Writer’s Workshop are and working on new passion projects. This week ended on a high note with the heroes practicing their pitches. The heroes decided that they were going to offer warm, cool, warm feedback as extra help. The heroes lined up for their chance to be critiqued. It is exciting to watch the heroes put so much passion behind their pitches. This week they worked so hard on the art of persuasion.
